Turkey urges more countries to sanction Israeli settlements

Turkey has welcomed the measures taken by 12 countries to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. "Israel's efforts to undermine the two-state solution are intensifying with each passing day," the statement said, adding that "illegal settlements have evolved into a systematic policy of occupation, threatening the very existence of the State of Palestine, while settler terrorism has reached the level of ethnic cleansing." The statement urged the international community to follow suit in responding firmly to Israeli occupation in order to establish a "just and lasting peace in the region".